Cornelia Baltes: Dingbats

Cornelia Baltes's (b. Mönchengladbach, 1978; lives and works in Berlin) paintings and installation straddle the divide between abstraction and figuration. Her pictures are inspired by observations of mundane details-apparel, body parts, or facial expressions-that she pares down to simple lines and shapes. Rendered in vibrant colors and gestural fields, they hint at a narrative in the pictorial space. Baltes works with steadily modulated color gradients, on which she places thick and assertive marks. She often interrogates the painted picture's function, by painting on the wall beyond the rectangle of the canvas, by hanging a picture in the middle of the room as an object in its own right or laying it out on the floor. Her works blend Pop Art and minimalism with an intensity and dynamic energy-and, sometimes, unmistakable flashes of humor-that cannot fail to captivate the beholder.This book is the first comprehensive monograph on the artist's oeuvre.Cornelia Baltes studied at Bergische Universität Wuppertal in 2000-2003 and at Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen, in 2003-2006, before rounding out her education at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2009-2011.